


A little kindness goes a long way (A pre-Recovery Oneshot)

by hisgraceciel



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Irish Sebastian, Modern AU, adopted dad tanaka, hospital mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 15:06:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18741496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hisgraceciel/pseuds/hisgraceciel
Summary: Sebastian O'Malley spent most of his life out of the foster homes hes assigned to and on the streets of Belfast, raising hell and getting involved in fights that risk his life.Tanaka is a well meaning business owner that visits the children's ward of the hospital to see a friend and her granddaughter on Christmas Eve when he catches sight of a kid by himself. What happens when he goes to speak with him?(This takes place roughly 11 years before the main fiction. Sebastian is sixteen years old.)





	A little kindness goes a long way (A pre-Recovery Oneshot)

**Author's Note:**

> This is a small oneshot detailing how Sebastian got adopted by Tanaka and ended up in London. It's short and sweet, not too large, but I wanted something for them since it's not quite explained in the body of the main fiction yet.
> 
> Please enjoy!

“That young man there, where are his parents?” 

It was Christmas Eve of 2008 in Belfast, Ireland when Tanaka went to visit a friend and her grandchild in the hospital. The little girl had been diagnosed with a rather normal form of cancer and was out of surgery from removal of a stubborn tumor; it was expected she would survive but she was still healing in the children’s ward, bright and happy as a spring flower.

But on his way out, he saw a teenager healing up on a bed in one of the rooms, completely wrapped up and wired up to some IV’s. He looked completely still, face turned up to look at the ceiling, completely blank.

“Oh, that teenager? He’s a troublemaker. He’s sixteen or so. No family, but he’s registered to some local working home. Ended up in a fight with a group a month ago. I can’t really go into detail about it though, I wasn’t here. It took forever for the damage to heal though. He's being discharged tomorrow morning.” the woman next to the nurses station explained. 

“Hm. No family, huh….” Tanaka felt interested. Trouble kids were something he attracted, it seemed. Baldroy was among them along with Meyrin. Baldroy and Meyrin were adults now, but he remembered taking them in when they weren't too much younger than the rascal he saw.

He decided to walk into the room, cramped with a few other beds. All of them were empty, since he was the only one in the room. It was dark, the only light shining in the evening coming from the slow blinking of the heart monitor he was hooked up to. 

A heartbeat that was sure and strong.

“Pardon me, young man.” he smiled. “I couldn’t help but notice you were on your own in here. Mind some company?”

He was met with silence, but he saw a glimmer of eyes even in the low light, a peaked interest.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” he sat in the chair next to the bed, meant for a family he didn’t have.

“..... Why are you here?” the voice was tense and unsure. “I could hear that lady from in here, I’m no good. Not sure why they saved me.” 

“You seemed lonely, just sitting here on your own,” Tanaka smiled at him, turning a low light on so he could see the other. “No one should be on their own on Christmas Eve.”

A small silence followed. “.... My name is Sebastian. Sebastian O’Malley. What’s your name, sir?”

“Well, you have manners, so you’re not as bad as you seem to think. Call me Tanaka. No misters or sirs for me, Sebastian.” 

“Yes s- Tanaka.” Sebastian said sheepishly.

The old man laughed. “You seem as scary as a downed puppy. I can hardly believe what was said about you.”

Normally, Sebastian was guarded. He rarely opened up to people - he didn’t like to, with the kind of rough and tumble world he lived in. It only ended up hurting you.

But there was something about this old man that made him a hell of a lot less like he needed to guard himself. Was it that damn friendly smile? No one has ever looked at him like that.

Like a person.

When you’re born out of wedlock to a teenager in a super conservative family, you’re thrown around the system more than you like to count. That’s all he knew about his birth mother; that she was fourteen when he was born and that he was dropped off three days later to a woman who ran a small foster home. He caused an uproar during the summer of 1992. He was born on June 21st, but he never celebrated his birthday.

What was the point? They all called him useless anyways. 

He turned to the streets. Slipping out every night since he learned to pick a lock and climb down various houses depending on where he was placed.

Though, now there was no home to go back to. They kicked him out, called him trash when he had gotten out from being sewn back up. He left for a day from the hospital before the stitches split and he was back being fixed up again.

Then…. What was there for him tomorrow? There were the streets, maybe a house that was abandoned if he was lucky. Maybe he shouldn’t have come back.

But staring into the kindly face of this old man who sat next to his bedside gave him the smallest sliver of hope.

“They said you don’t have a family here with you. Is that true?” the words were couched gently, so it didn’t cause any possible pain or harm.

“Never had any. From what I was told I was dropped off on the doorstep by some girl who couldn’t keep me.” there was no discomfort on his part. He really didn’t care to think about it, but it wasn’t something he’d go to pieces over.  
But then, a variety of other things fell from his mouth. His rough childhood living from place to place, never having someone to care for him when he was sick. He never got shots growing up; he caught everything from measles to chicken pox.

He didn’t like school since the place they forced him to go used rulers on kid’s knuckles even though it was frowned upon, got teased since his clothes were never as good as anyone else’s.

Sebastian was the kid that people looked at with a mixture of pity and disgust. 

And during this time, he never really noticed he was crying.

“I see.” the tone was gentle, almost soft. Why did he open up so easily?

“You get discharged tomorrow, correct?” 

“Y-yeah?”

“Good, good. May I ask you over for Christmas dinner tomorrow?”

\-----------------------------------------------------

Sebastian felt so out of place. 

He wore beat up combat boots, ratty jeans, an old ill fitting tshirt and a sweater that had seen better days.

This place…. Was too nice for him. Like he was a speck of soot on a white countertop or something. 

“You can sit down.” Tanaka chuckled. Sebastian almost squeaked when he fell back onto the couch. 

“S-sorry! I didn't mean to sit down so hard.” 

There was laughter. “Don't be so stiff.” 

Sebastian's only bag of belongings was upstairs, and Tanaka insisted it stay there. He wasn't sure what was going on, but no police had shown up to take him to a new house to be shoved into until he was old enough to be on his own, so he figured something good had happened. 

Normally when he got kicked out, he was dragged to either the police station or a new home. So he let himself enjoy the day that lengthened into the evening.

And then that evening turned into days, weeks and months. Clothing got changed out - who knew that new clothes felt so nice? - and he slept in a bed that didn’t hurt his back for once.

More of his natural personality came out. He could be snarky, sarcastic and a smart ass, but when he did something right, like cleaning the house on his own or making dinner for once, he turned into an excited kid that was actually pretty damn proud of what he had done. 

He barely argued when they moved. Though Belfast wasn’t exactly a bad city, where he grew up, there were bad memories for him involved. Later on he’d realize he did love the place, but for right now he would go where his dad - yeah that was his adopted father, he was told at a point - would go.

And well, he had never been to England before. When they pulled out of the airport on a plane, and he didn’t look back, at least not for now.

London was far bigger than he expected, but he wasn’t daunted.

“Ah, here we are! It looks old fashioned on the outside, but on the inside it’s rather cozy…” 

Old fashioned? Who cared about that! It was freaking huge! 

“We - we can’t live in that! It looks bigger than the house you had back in Belfast!” he was completely unbelieving.

“Oh not the whole thing. You see, I’m moving my business here, so the bottom part will be taken up by it. I wanted to ask…” Tanaka smiled.

“Want to join my family business? I run a bakery and cafe, you see. I realize I never told you that.”

The teen resembled a deer in headlights. On one hand, he had never been formerly educated since he ditched school so much. However, on the other, an apprenticeship meant that he’d have somewhere to work. In theory, this would count, right?

“....What all do I have to learn?” he said cautiously as he was lead into their new home (a place he would spend many happy years with, both with his adopted father and in the future……)

“Quite a bit. We need to get you certified for food handling first, though, before I can teach you anything in the kitchen down there. In the meantime, I’ll teach you what I can up here.”

It took a few months, a mishap or two, and more than a few burns before he was ready to work downstairs. Shortly after Baldroy, another of Tanaka’s adopted kids, drifted in and joined them (he himself had recently moved on up from Liverpool after his stint with the Royal Navy and was more than happy to join in on the fun) along with Meyrin for running the front. 

But it was found that of all three of them, Sebastian seemed to have the most fun and the most gifted with any form of food. Baking, normal cooking, and even more advanced things. Hands that at one point would fight with the best of them could create just about anything.

A year had passed. He was far different that Christmas than he was a year ago. Given a good place to sleep, real food to eat, and a non stressful environment caused him to go from all wiry muscle and short kid to rather tall and graceful young man. He had friends, both outside of work and inside of it, and a parent that seemed to actually care about him.

And for once in his life, everything felt right. 

He never knew that in a few years it’d be turned topsy turvy but for the better.


End file.
